Sham S. Misri
The
Trinity quarrels continued into feud with Daksha, Brahma’s son. Prajapati Daksh
is one of Lord Brahma’s Manas Putra. He was angered and began disliking Lord
Shiva, when the latter had cut off Lord Brahma’s fifth head. He later married
Prasuti, daughter of Svayambhu Manu, and had many daughters, who married many
devas and other rishis.
Prajapati
Daksha’s youngest daughter, Sati was Goddess Adi Shakti’s incarnation. She was
very dear to him. But when he found out that she was in love with Shiva, he
tried his best to keep her away from him. He once imprisoned her in the Daksh
Rekha also.
Two
of his daughters Revati and Rohini were married to Chandrama (the Moon Lord).
But, Chandrama favoured Rohini over Revati which eventually made her sad. When
Daksh found out about it, he cursed Chandrama. Then Mahadeva revived Chandrama
from this curse of his by placing him on his head.
In
order to keep Sati away from Shiva, Prajapati Daksh arranged her marriage with
Satbish, a very ugly looking man. To make Satbish handsome, he was advised by
Lord Brahma to look for a sculptor named Jatta (who was in fact Lord Shiva
himself). Jatta made a handsome sculpture of Satbish, thus making him handsome.
But, then Daksha asked Jatta to make him another sculpture, that of Shiva as a Dwarpals,
which was made by Jatta. But soon, Satbish understood that Sati was only meant
to marry Shiva and thus refused to marry her.
Feeling
insulted, he arranged for Sati’s swayamwara. At the swayamwara, Sati chose
Shiva by putting the garland around the neck of his statue. Even though Daksha
refused the marriage, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma forced him to accept it. He
was greatly upset by his daughter marrying Shiva.
Daksha
had always hated Shiva. He did not leave a single chance to insult him. One day
Daksha organized a grand yajna to which all the gods were invited, with the
exception of Sati and Shiva. Wanting to visit her parents, relatives and
childhood friends, Sati sought to rationalize this omission. She reasoned
within herself that her parents had neglected to make a formal invitation to
them only because, as family, such formality was unnecessary; certainly, she
needed no invitation to visit her own mother and would go anyway. Shiva sought
to dissuade her, but she was resolved upon going; he then provided her with an
escort, Nandi and bid her provoke no incident.
Daksha
holds a horse sacrifice without Shiva. This revenge was to miscarry. While all the
gods troop off to the sacrifice, Sati pleads the father. Daksha repeats the
strictures of the early assembly, upon which, in vindication Sati enters the
sacrificial fire and gets consumed by flames. Sati, Shiva’s love was gone and
he was devastated. An enraged Shiva tore a hair and created the fiercest
warrior, Veerabhadra. His body was tall to reach the high heavens; he was as
dark as the clouds; he had a thousand arms; three burning eyes, fiery hair and
he wore a garland of skulls and carried terrible weapons. Mother Devi created Bhardrakali
and provided Shakti energy. Thus Veerabhadra and Bhardrakali were born of the
wrath of Shiva and Shakti and personified their anger.
Mahadeva
created from his mouth a terrible sound, Being whose very sight could make
one’s hair stand on its end. The blazing flames that emanated from his body
rendered him exceedingly awful to behold. His arms were many in number and in
each was a weapon that struck the beholder with fear. . “I am known by the name
of Veerabhadra’’ and I have sprung from the wrath of Rudra. This lady, who is
my companion, and who is called Bhardrakali, has sprung from the wrath of the
goddess.”
Veerabhadra
was ordered to destroy Daksha’s horse sacrifice. Veerabhadra awaits
instructions and this, according to Vaayu Purana: “Lead my army against Daksha and destroy his
sacrifice; fear not the Brahmanas, for thou art a portion of my very self”.
‘Spoil the sacrifice of Daksha’. Then the mighty Veerabhadra, having heard the
pleasure of his lord, bowed down his head to the feet of Shiva; and starting
like a lion loosed from bonds, despoiled the sacrifice of Daksha, knowing that
this had been created by the displeasure of Devi. She too in her wrath, as the
fearful goddess Rudrakali, accompanied him, with all her train, to witness his
deeds.
As
directed by Shiva, this ‘fire of fate’ scattered all the gods and cut off
Daksha’s head. Vishnu had a few roles to
play here. According to Skanda Purana, when Veerabhadra confronted Vishnu, the
former swallows his chakra. That was a lesson for Vishnu to conduct himself
wisely. The gods send Vishnu to plead
for Daksha’s life to complete the yagna favouring them. Next the defeated Gods
sent Brahma to Kailasa. There Brahma prays to Shiva and asks for pardon. The
all-merciful Shiva replaces Daksha’s burnt head with a goat’s head. Shiva is
invited to the yagna. There Daksha shows reverence and all the gods salute
Shiva. Thereafter Daksha becomes a great Shiva Bhakta. Shiva Tattva here is
Lord Shiva representing the Higher Self; Sati as Shakti representing the Heart
and Daksha representing the ego. Symbolism of losing your head is related to
destroying ego.
Shiva
stormed into Daksha’s home and gave himself to insane grief. He retrieved
Sati’s body from the embers and clasped her so lovingly. But a lifeless Sati in
his arms makes Him emotionally violent and the rhythm of Tandava, encompassing
the world seven times with Sati in his arms, makes the universe suffer. Vishnu
had to put a stop to this, lest the frenzy of mourning has no meaning to his
preserving status. He cuts up Sati’s body, the Shiva-lila that marks the 51
powerful Shakti Peethas.
The
Mahabharata version makes clear the Trinity rivalry, making a lesser issue with
Brahma than Vishnu’s race for supremacy. In Daksha’s sacrificial hall, Siva
inspires fear with his arrow offerings. He hurled the Pinaka, his blazing
lightning Thrishula. This destroys the sacrifice which was held in honour of
Vishnu and he is struck in the breasts but it is hurled back in equal vigour.
Battle flared and as per myths Indra was trampled underfoot, Saraswati’s nose
was cut, Mitra’s eyes were put out, Pushan’s teeth knocked off, Chandra was
beaten, Agni’s hands were cut off and the whole universe quaked. This was all
halted when Brahma intervened. Daksha then declares Shiva’s supremacy.
